The Power of a Kind Word

I was giving a presentation the other week when something unexpected happened, during an exercise where we were playing Jenga. Jenga is a simple game. Three little rectangular blocks of wood are laid side by side with another layer of 3 blocks stacked perpendicularly on top of them until you have a tower of blocks about 10 layers high. The object of the game is to take a block from a lower layer and place it on the top of the tower. As participants came up to try and pick out a block, I would either coach them, yell at them (to illustrate a point of course!) or reward them.

When I rewarded someone, I gave them a ribbon with a positive saying like, “Great Job” or “Outstanding.” The unexpected event came after the seminar was over and I was cleaning up. One of the participants approached me and asked if she could keep the ribbon. I smiled and said “of course!”. We got to chatting, and I realized that this was important to her, because she wasn’t getting any recognition for her real work. I wonder why her boss doesn’t recognize her more often? All I did was give her a simple ribbon during a game, and she was thrilled. Can you imagine the impact of a simple “thank you” or “great job” from her boss would have.

If you want to take your team to a higher level, take the time to let them know how much you appreciate their work and that you’re thankful for their efforts.